Obviously a much better game this week, pretty much across the board. The offense looked good, especially in the second half, and the defense completely shut down Iowa State's spread passing attack.
The Offense
Running backs: B
Brandon Wegher brought a new hope to the Hawkeye rushing game. I'm not ready to anoint him as anything yet, because most of his yards game against a tired and defeated ISU defensive front 7, but what we saw on Saturday was very good. He was patient behind the line, was elusive in space, broke tackles, made a ridiculous 1 handed catch, lined up in the slot and ran a good slant, went for over 100 yards, scored a touchdown on a superman leap, and that was just his first "real" game (he played special teams last week). I'm looking forward to see how he develops over the next 4 years.
Robinson had a nice game as well. He ran for 69 yards on 12 carries, and 3 of the runs were over 10 yards. I wouldn't be surprised if he remains the starter for a while, with Wegher the main back up.
Quarterback: C
It almost seems wrong to give Stanzi a C when he threw 4 touchdowns and 197 yards. But, for the second week in a row it was the tail of 2 halves. In the first half Stanzi was just 12 of 24 and had thrown 2 interceptions and 2 touchdowns. Stanzi missed some wide open receivers as well that resulted in stalled drives and missed opportunities. In the second half, Stanzi was better going 6 of 10 with 2 touchdowns and no interceptions. He's known for his ablility to shake off mistakes...but it would make me much happier if he just eliminated those errant throws altogether.
One other note: we found out who is number 2 after a long time of the two redshirt freshman being listed with an "or" on the depth chart. James Vandenberg came in on the final drive and completed 2 of 3 passes for 38 yards. Besides his first pass, which was way off, he threw 2 very nice balls. He will definitely have a bright future.
Tight End: B+
I'm pretty sure Iowa State's game plan was to take Tony Moeaki out of the game. He was well covered all day long and finished with just 1 catch. He did, however, have a huge impact on the running game. He was absolutely dominating ISU's defensive ends all day, but he did have a hold called against him. Allen Reisner also had a good day with a touchdown grab.
Wide Receiver: A-
Granted it wasn't all wide receivers, but 12 different Hawkeyes caught a pass on Saturday. That is a crazy number...in all of last year there were just 16 different players. With the ball being spread all around, nobody really had a standout performace, but the unit as a whole was very good consistently getting open. Stross had a good game with 4 catches and DJK had a great touchdown. Keenan Davis is another true freshman that had a great game. He had 2 catches and a touchdown that he really showed his athleticism.
Offensive Line: B+
A much, much, much better performance by the offensive line this week. Having Vandervelde back at guard was a huge help, and Calloway back at right tackle allowed Richardson to slide inside. The big question coming into the game was a left tackle with redshirt freshman Riley Rieff as Bulaga was out. Rieff stepped up huge yesterday. He had a couple of false starts (which is excusable), but otherwise had an excellent game. It definitely makes me feel more comfortable with the idea of Bulaga leaving for the NFL after this year (though I'm still hoping he stays).
Offense as a whole: B
Give credit to Ken O'Keefe, who often doesn't get enough when he deserves it. The game plan was excellent. The ball was spread all over the field, there were lots of different formations (including 5 wide!), we passed when we usually run, and it was just overall a good game.
The Defense
Defensive Line: B
I think the line improved over the last week. Though the defense gave up 190 rushing yards and allowed Robinson to get over 100 (when was the last time Iowa gave up that much on the ground?), the line was still pretty strong. It was very rare that Iowa lined up more than 6 guys in the box, so the line had a heavy task trying to stop the run. Against the pass, a pass rush was definitely present, even if it didn't lead to sacks. Binns in particular had a good game. He had 9 tackles, knocked down a pass, and had one QB hurry.
Linebacker: B-
It was another quite game for the linebackers. They were mostly used in coverage and I would say they did a pretty good job. Iowa often went to a 3-4 in obvious passing downs and sent all 4 linebackers into coverage.
Secondary: A
The safeties get an A+. Just a great game from Sash...10 tackles, 3 interceptions, a forced fumbled, and 2 tackles for loss. He was also good in coverage. I didn't see any one running by him like in the UNI game. Greenwood was also excellent, with 2 interceptions and 6 tackles to his name.
The cornerbacks were also solid. I was very happy to see Willie Lowe step up and play a good game when he got thrown in late this week with a minor injury to Castillo. I don't really remember ISU throwing in his direction all that often, so that's a good thing. Spievey was Spievey and had another good game.
Defense on a whole: B+
The Hawkeyes kept Iowa Sate out of the end zone for the 14th straight quarter. The pass defense was very good and confused Arnaud all day (until he was pulled). If it wasn't for a somewhat shaky rush defense, I'd give the unit an A. This definitely looked like the top 10 defense of last year.
The Special Teams
Special teams as a whole: B+
Ryan Donahue again had a great game with 3 of his 4 punts downed inside the 20. When he had the chance to boom one, he did, kicking a 57 yard punt. Not much to say about Murray...no field goals attempted, made all his PATs, and did pretty good with the kickoffs. The return game still leaves something to be desired, but I'm still confident in Chaney and Spievey returning kicks. Coverage was pretty good only allowing 99 return yards on 6 kickoffs.